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squirming. He hadn’t felt like
squirming in his entire adult life, and he found the sensation
extremely unpleasant. “Listen, Mr. English, why don’t you tell me
what you want to talk about? If it’s about my father, I can’t help
you. I don’t know where he is. If I’m lucky, they’ve got him locked
up, but I’m not usually lucky.”
    Good Lord. Alex had never heard anything
like this before in his whole life. He couldn’t imagine so young a
woman being so hard and cynical. “It’s not about your father. It’s
about you.”
    She seemed to slump for no more than an
instant, then straightened her spine again. “Yeah? What about
me?”
    Drat the woman. A person would think he was
the one at fault here, when it was she who was the one performing
salacious dances and telling fortunes. Everyone knew
fortune-tellers were no better than criminals.
    “I saw your performance this evening.”
    “Yeah? Pretty good, aren’t I?”
    “For heaven’s sake, Miss Finney! That dance
is scandalous!”
    “It’s not scandalous. It’s
Egyptian. How come you’ve never talked to Little Egypt about how
scandalous she is? How come you’re telling me I’m a hussy?”
    “A hussy?” Alex felt himself flush and could
only be glad the carriage was dark inside. “I said no such
thing.”
    “You thought it,” Kate said baldly. “And I’m
not.”
    “Of course not.” He didn’t believe it. He
thought she was a hussy. The truth smacked him like a blow. Gil’s
accusation taunted him, and he tried to shake it off.
    “Listen, Mr. English. I’m only trying to
make a living however I can. It’s not my fault I wasn’t born with a
silver spoon in my mouth, like you were—”
    ”Now see here—”
    ”Darn it, listen to me, will you? I work
hard. Very, very hard. And it’s not easy, what I do. I’m trying to
support myself and my mother, and believe me, the world isn’t kind
to women who are trying to support themselves.”
    “You ought to get married. That’s what you
should do.” Alex was sure of it. Marriage and motherhood were the
roles established for women, no matter how poorly this present
example of femininity might fill the roles. Until her face set like
granite, he hadn’t believed she could look any harder.
    “Yeah? My mother got married. See the
result?” She yanked at her scarf, and Alex winced when he saw the
dark, brutal bruises thus exposed. “Marriage isn’t for me, thanks
anyway.”
    “You know very well such a—a marriage as—as
that is uncommon, Miss Finney.”
    “Not where I come from, it isn’t. I’ve got
better things in store for my life than marriage, believe me.”
    “You sound like a suffragist,” Alex said
stiffly. He didn’t hold with woman’s suffrage. What did women know
about the world and politics?
    “Suffragist, my foot,” Kate scoffed. “I
don’t give a hang about suffrage. I don’t have time to think about
suffrage. All I’m trying to do is put food on the table. And I
won’t let you stop me, if I can help it.”
    “I’m not trying to stop you from putting
food on your table.” He was becoming annoyed. This little chit was
trying to make him out to be some kind of ogre. “What I’m trying to
do is maintain a proper tone at the fair I helped to create.”
    “Yeah? Well, somebody said it was all right
for Madame Esmeralda to set up a booth on the Midway, and somebody
else said it was all right for Little Egypt to dance there, so I
guess we don’t really have anything to talk about, do we? I guess
everybody else thinks our tone is proper enough.” She turned and
resumed looking out at the street.
    Alex saw that her fingers were tapping out a
nervous tattoo on her handbag. He got the impression her state of
anxiety didn’t concern herself, but someone else. The person at the
hospital? “Are you worried about someone at the hospital, Miss
Finney?” He was surprised when he heard the question, since he
hadn’t intended to ask it.
    Again, she turned and gave